Remco Evenepoel's father hints at Hour Record as future challenge

“Maybe so. We haven’t talked about it directly yet, but I think it could interest him one day. It’s exactly the kind of challenge that should attract him,” Patrick Evenepoel told Belgian daily Sudinfo after his son’s latest display of dominance in Kigali.

The 25-year-old had doubled down on his mastery of the discipline on Sunday, catching Tadej Pogačar on his way to a third consecutive world title. That kind of supremacy on the road against the clock makes the Hour Record seem less a curiosity than an inevitability.

“He knows it’s a different discipline, but he has the specific qualities to achieve it,” Patrick Evenepoel added. “It’s a goal that will come in due time, after the other major targets in his career. The time trial remains his speciality, and if he is already aiming for a fourth world title in that discipline, the Hour Record could be another summit to conquer.”

Patrick Evenepoel is not alone in voicing the idea. In June, Eddy Merckx, who set the Hour Record in Mexico City in 1972, argued that cycling would be enriched if Evenepoel and Pogačar dared to test themselves over sixty minutes. “The Slovenian is the best, the most complete. And Remco has incredible aerodynamics. It would be wonderful if they dared to take on that challenge,” Merckx said.

The current benchmark stands at 56.792km, set by Filippo Ganna in Grenchen in October 2022. The Italian not only toppled Dan Bigham’s short-lived record from two months earlier, he also surpassed Chris Boardman’s absolute mark of 56.375km from 1996, achieved in the since-outlawed Superman position. 

Across generations the Hour Record has lured champions into the velodrome, and sooner or later Evenepoel seems likely to test himself against Ganna’s 56.792km.